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The ancient city of Corinth was infamous across the Roman Empire for immorality so deep that its name became a verb for sexual sin. Into this depraved port city arrived a lone apostle, stricken by fear and trembling. What promise from God enabled him to stay long enough to see many come to faith, in spite of fierce hostility to the Gospel?
📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/separate-don-t-isolate
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📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/separate-don-t-isolate
#mlcc #church #churchonline
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00:00It's obvious when we pray around the world for hostile and restricted nations
00:03that these, our brothers and sisters, are suffering there.
00:06There's great opposition to the gospel,
00:09whether from the government or from warlords around them.
00:13And those people, especially, I think, like North Korea,
00:16they know what will come if they're caught being a believer in Jesus Christ
00:19in some of these hostile nations,
00:21not just restricted, but hostile to the gospel.
00:24They know the consequences, they've counted the cost,
00:27but they're willing to lay down their lives
00:30if that's what's necessary.
00:36This is kind of like the Apostle Paul.
00:38This man had such opposition against him, left and right,
00:42everywhere he went, it seems like they hated this man.
00:45But he realized he knew the consequences of following Jesus,
00:49and he says, you know, I'm okay with that.
00:51I'm okay with the consequences of following Jesus.
00:54As a matter of fact, Gerald Bonner wrote this.
00:56He said, the essential element in martyrdom,
00:59now you say martyrdom, we're not talking,
01:01actually the Greek word witness,
01:04our English word, or the Greek word for witness is marturo,
01:07which are our English word for martyr.
01:09By giving up your life is the greatest witness one can have
01:13for the gospel message.
01:14That's why martyr is the word witness.
01:18The essential element in martyrdom is not the physical act of dying,
01:22but rather a disposition of the will to live for Christ
01:26with a necessary corollary that by a strange but holy Christian paradox,
01:32living for Christ may involve the necessity to lay one's life down for him.
01:39We understand that.
01:40We don't live in a country yet that we have to fear,
01:42someone marching in right now and shooting all of us
01:44because we're followers of Jesus Christ.
01:45We don't have that in our country, but some countries do.
01:48The opposition to the gospel is strong,
01:52and it is growing stronger in our nation as well.
01:55Follow it on X or Facebook.
01:56You can see the discussions going on,
01:58how Christianity is mocked, made fun of, and ridiculed.
02:03We're going to be in Corinth today.
02:05We were in Athens last week.
02:07We're going to be in Corinth, another major city of Greece.
02:09And here we're going to see that on the one hand,
02:12faithfully proclaiming God's word can lead to opposition,
02:15but on the other hand, God can also use you to save people.
02:19You can be the means whereby that information,
02:22the gospel message gets out to people, and God can save them.
02:25We know that there are consequences for being a follower of Jesus Christ.
02:31Some countries are worse than others.
02:33Are we okay with opposition?
02:36Are we okay with that?
02:37Or are you and I afraid of the opposition that may come our way
02:40because we're speaking the truth about Jesus Christ
02:43to a culture that really doesn't want to hear it?
02:47Back to Corinth.
02:48Corinth.
02:49You know, there's been some evacu...
02:50I can't even say the word.
02:53It's not evacuations.
02:55There are diggings.
02:55I can't even say the word.
02:57Excavations.
02:58I couldn't say the word.
02:59Excavations in Corinth.
03:01It's an old city.
03:02About 3,000 BC, it was established.
03:04They were there for a long time.
03:06When the Persians tried to take over Greece,
03:09they banded together as a bunch of city-states
03:11and fought against Persia and won.
03:13But then when Rome came to power,
03:15they again banded together as city-states and they lost.
03:18And in 146, Rome razed the city of Corinth to the ground.
03:22I mean, just to the ground.
03:24Tore every building down.
03:25And it didn't rebuild it.
03:27Julius Caesar rebuilt it in 44 BC.
03:30So that is about 100 years.
03:34It wasn't a very old city.
03:36He built it and named it Colinia, Laos, Julia.
03:40I don't know why Julia.
03:41Maybe that's Julius Caesar.
03:43I don't know.
03:43Julia, Corinthians.
03:45So he named it Corinth.
03:46And that's the city that we're going to be talking about.
03:48Old city, but destroyed, rebuilt by the Romans.
03:51Not very old when Paul arrives.
03:53Probably less than 100 years old when Paul gets,
03:55or a little bit over 100 years old when Paul gets there.
03:59So Corinth, as you see in this graphic,
04:00is about 50 miles from Athens.
04:02So if you look on the bottom down there,
04:03and a little tip right there in the middle left section, Athens,
04:07you go left to Corinth.
04:08Corinth was a port city.
04:10And the ships would come in, and you notice there's,
04:12you can't really see because that red line is in the way.
04:15But there's a little waterway up,
04:16and then there's a peninsula going over to Athens,
04:19and there's a waterway on the other side.
04:20And so they would dock on one side of Corinth,
04:22unload their wares, go on the other side,
04:24reload their ships on that side,
04:26instead of sailing all the way around underneath Corinth.
04:29Saved them a lot of time.
04:30So you can see it was a port city.
04:32That means they're sailors.
04:34Now you let your mind run for a second.
04:36Think about a port city with sailors,
04:38and the attitude and the behaviors that you see
04:40in a port city with sailors.
04:42That's part of the problem at Corinth.
04:45So 50 miles they've traveled.
04:47He's now at Corinth.
04:48Let's see what's going on.
04:49He's by himself.
04:51Text is going to say ride alone.
04:52He's by himself.
04:53He was in Athens by himself.
04:54He goes to Corinth by himself.
04:56Silas and Timothy join him later.
04:58So he's all by himself when he gets to Corinth.
05:00So verse number one, chapter 18 of Acts, verse number one.
05:03So open up your Bible.
05:04We want to look at it together.
05:05This is God's word.
05:07So after this, Paul left Athens.
05:09We read about that.
05:10He preached on Mars Hill.
05:12Some believe, some didn't.
05:13And then they left.
05:15There was some issues with the resurrection of the dead.
05:19We talked about that last week.
05:20So he left Athens and he went to Corinth.
05:22So he's all by himself.
05:23And he found a Jew named Aquila.
05:26So, you know, one of his own kinsmen, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his
05:32wife Priscilla because Claudius, that was the emperor at the time, had commanded all
05:36the Jews to leave Rome.
05:38So here's a Jew that's there in Corinth that Paul meets.
05:42He's by himself.
05:44He meets his couple.
05:45We don't know if Priscilla was a Jew or not.
05:47There's no really, the Bible doesn't say one way or the other.
05:49She may be a Gentile.
05:50He for sure was a Jew, we are told.
05:53So he commanded all Jews to leave Rome and he went to see them.
05:58And because he was of the same trade as Aquila and Priscilla, he stayed with them and worked
06:03for they were tent makers by trade.
06:06And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath.
06:08So he worked all week long and then reasoned on Saturdays in the synagogue and tried to persuade
06:13Jews and Greeks.
06:15So he arrives all by himself.
06:18It's all by himself.
06:18And Luke just briefly talks about the ministry here at Corinth.
06:21I mean, if you look at Athens, the length of the words for Athens and the length of the
06:25words for Philippi, they're much longer in description than here at Corinth.
06:29Yet he spends a lot of time at Corinth, which you think he would write more, but Luke doesn't
06:33write a whole lot about it.
06:35Athens was known as being intellectual, architectural.
06:39Corinth on the other end was known for its pride, its commerce.
06:43Again, it's a port city and mostly its immorality.
06:46It was a horribly wicked city, totally immoral.
06:52So raised by the Romans, through the ground, 146, rebuilt in 44 BC.
06:58So we're looking at maybe about 50 AD, Paul is there.
07:01So just a little over 100 years old.
07:02This city is not very old at this point.
07:04The buildings, I'm sure, architecturally were gorgeous as far as architecture, but also
07:09filled with idols' temples as well.
07:11Also filled with idols, the Greek, the sun god Apollo was the patron god of the city.
07:17There was a temple to Aphrodite, who was a small g goddess of love.
07:21And every night, 1,000 temple prostitutes would come into that temple and people would come
07:26in and pay their money and have their spiritual experience with the temple prostitute in the
07:30city of Corinth and Aphrodite's temple.
07:33Horribly wicked, immoral city.
07:35Sexual immorality is a constant theme when we read 1 Corinthians.
07:42It's just actually, sexual immorality is a constant theme for all of humanity.
07:46You read Paul's other books, that seems to be our biggest problem is sexual immorality.
07:50So Corinth was well known for its immorality.
07:53Well known for its immorality.
07:55In fact, it was all over the empire known for its immorality.
07:58From the 5th century BC, the expression to Corinthicize meant to be sexually immoral.
08:05That's how long the city's been known for its sexual immorality.
08:08It's a terrible, I mean, read 1 Corinthians chapter 5, even we have Christians doing stuff
08:11that even pagans don't do sexually immoral things.
08:14Terrible, horrible city.
08:16So the question is, he comes into this wicked city.
08:19Now, he's there, we're going to learn later, for over 18 months, okay?
08:23That means he's walking down the city streets of Corinth.
08:25You can imagine the things that he saw on the street.
08:30How do you remain separated to God when you're having connection with people that are sexually immoral?
08:39How do we stay separated to God, but not be contaminated by contact with unbelievers?
08:45He saw stuff that you and I, we wouldn't even want to talk about in public.
08:48I'm sure he saw walking down the streets of Corinth, sexually immoral city that it was.
08:53So he understood separation without isolation.
08:56He didn't just say, oh, I'm going to stay in the synagogue.
08:58No, he went in the marketplace.
08:59He went all over Corinth preaching Jesus Christ.
09:02So he wasn't isolated, but he still stayed separated.
09:06So he could have contact with unbelievers without the contamination of the sexual immorality.
09:11And that's something that you and I living in a culture that's not as bad as Corinth.
09:14It's bad.
09:15It's bad, but it's not as bad as Corinth.
09:17How do we live out there without being contaminated from the contact of unbelievers?
09:21Paul got it.
09:22He understood.
09:23He understood how to be separated, not isolated.
09:26He understood how to be in contact with unbelievers who were sexually immoral, but not to be contaminated
09:30by their behavior.
09:31He learned that.
09:33It's a good, it's a good thing to know.
09:35Known throughout the whole Roman empire.
09:37In fact, when Paul wrote the book of Romans, he wrote the book of Romans from Corinth.
09:41When he was in Corinth, he wrote the book of Romans.
09:44And I can imagine when he was writing the book of Romans, especially this portion I'm going to read
09:48to you right now to Romans chapter one, it's a longer portion, it's a longer portion, but
09:52he's probably thinking of Corinth as he's writing to the Romans.
09:57Let me read this to you.
09:58This is probably what he's thinking about.
10:00For although they knew God, so he writes from Corinth to the Romans, and he's thinking about
10:05what he's seeing around him at the time.
10:07For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but become
10:12futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
10:15Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for
10:21images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creepy things.
10:24Think about all of the idols at Athens.
10:27Corinth is just as bad.
10:30Therefore, God gave them up to the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring
10:35of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged a truth about God for a lie.
10:39In other words, God's truth was out there, but they said, I don't want that.
10:42I suppress the truth.
10:42I don't want the truth.
10:43I'll just accept the lie.
10:44The aliyah is an idol, by the way.
10:46It's a lie.
10:47And worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.
10:52Amen.
10:53For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions.
10:56For the women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and
11:00the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for
11:04one another.
11:05Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their
11:09error.
11:09He writes that from Corinth, and I'm sure he's looking around him and saying, yeah, that's
11:13Corinth.
11:13It's probably Rome, too.
11:15Probably Athens.
11:16It's probably most of the cities of the Roman Empire at the time.
11:20This is what he was seeing at Corinth.
11:23And when he arrived there, you know, he's alone.
11:26But what was he thinking when he arrived?
11:28What are some thoughts going through his mind?
11:30He actually tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 what he was thinking about when he arrived
11:34at Corinth.
11:351 Corinthians chapter 2, he says,
11:37That's all he preached.
11:52And I was with you, look at, in weakness, and in fear, and much trembling.
11:59And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of
12:04the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in
12:09the power of God.
12:10This is what he's thinking when he arrived at Corinth.
12:13You see that there's some fear and trembling that's going on here with him.
12:17Then we're introduced to this couple, Aquila and Priscilla.
12:21And some of the parts of the Bible, we see Priscilla coming first, Priscilla and Aquila.
12:25That's the wife.
12:27Aquila is the husband.
12:28So it's mixed up in the Bible.
12:30It's not always Aquila and Priscilla.
12:31Sometimes it's the other way around.
12:32But we're introduced to this couple.
12:35He mentions them in three of his letters.
12:38Why?
12:38Because they became really close.
12:40And they were there.
12:41Can you imagine coming to a city all by yourself, being just overwhelmed by the immorality around
12:46you, looking around and looking for a like-minded person, and all of a sudden you meet one?
12:52Oh, there's Aquila.
12:53Oh, not only is he a Jew, but he's a fellow believer.
12:55Could you imagine the encouragement that Paul received all alone in Athens, thinking that,
13:00man, I know God's with me, but there's no one else around me right now.
13:03And someone shows up to give you a word of encouragement, how good that is.
13:08You and I know how much a word of encouragement means to us.
13:11We're down.
13:12Things aren't going well.
13:13Someone comes alongside of us and gives us a word of encouragement.
13:16Encouragement allows us to stand up and continue on, to fight the fight, continue, and not
13:22to give up.
13:23And you and I need encouragement.
13:26We need encouragement.
13:29And Aquila and Priscilla became close friends of Paul and even risked their lives for him
13:34one time.
13:35I don't know what it was.
13:36The Bible only says they risked their lives.
13:37I'm not sure what they did, but somehow they risked their lives for his sake.
13:42And that's recorded in Romans chapter 16.
13:44Greet Prisca and Aquila.
13:46See, I told you they don't always say Aquila and Priscilla.
13:48Prisca is just another name for Priscilla, just a different spelling of it.
13:53Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for
13:57my life.
13:59At some point, whatever they did, they risked their necks for him, to whom not only I give
14:03thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well.
14:07So here's a couple that encouraged him, put their lives in danger for him.
14:12They become such close friends.
14:15And Luke mentions them here because they're going to play another role later on in the
14:19chapter.
14:20So he's introducing Priscilla and Aquila to us right now so that later on we'll know when
14:24they come back up in the chapter who these people are.
14:27He's really good about that.
14:28He gives us that information that we need to know.
14:30So the Jews, we are told here, have been kicked out of Rome.
14:35Claudius was the emperor.
14:36He kicked the Jews out of Rome.
14:38Well, there's a Roman historian that kind of gave us a background of what took place when
14:42the Jews were kicked out of Rome.
14:43His name was Suetonius.
14:45Suetonius was a Roman historian.
14:47And he said what happened in Rome, that there was an uprising, a riot, caused because of
14:54Christus, C-H-R-E-S-T-U-S, Christus.
15:00And he probably got the name wrong.
15:03It should have been Christus, which is a Latin name for Christ, but he wrote it Crestus.
15:07So because of the preaching of Jesus Christ, there was some sort of riot that the Jews
15:12caused in Rome.
15:12And he says, get out, all of you Jews.
15:15Claudius kicked all the Jews out of Rome.
15:19Probably a misunderstanding of Christus.
15:21He just didn't, he didn't write it down right.
15:23But this gives us information.
15:25This informs us that the gospel had already came to Rome already.
15:29It has already been there because they're believers when they leave Rome and come to
15:33Corinth.
15:34So the gospel's already made it to Rome.
15:37So to avoid any obstacles for preaching of the gospel at Corinth, Paul received no money
15:42from them.
15:42He said, I'm not going to, I'm not going to make you think that I was there just to fleece
15:46you of your money, to take your money from you.
15:49So he worked as a tent maker.
15:50We were told here in the text.
15:52Yeah.
15:52He worked with his hands as a tent maker.
15:54Or 2 Corinthians chapter 11, he records this.
15:57Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached
16:01God's gospel to you free of charge?
16:04He had a right to receive some sort of recompense from them, sort of stipend.
16:07He had every right to do that.
16:08But he says, you know, I don't want to be an offense here.
16:11It would be better if I just work my own hands, make tents.
16:14And he met Aquila and he can make tents with Aquila and he pays for his own stuff.
16:19He felt that was best.
16:21It's great encouragement.
16:22So he keeps the same pattern.
16:24He preaches to the Jews first, and then he goes over and speaks to the Greeks.
16:27They're all upset at him.
16:29So Silas and Timothy now rejoin him back at Corinth.
16:34So look with me at verse number five.
16:37When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, that's where they were at.
16:40They had stayed behind.
16:41They were not at Athens and they were not at Corinth at first.
16:44Now they've come to Corinth.
16:46Paul was occupied with the word.
16:49That's what he was doing when they arrived.
16:50He was preoccupied.
16:51Preoccupied.
16:52He was occupied with the word.
16:53The word was his central occupation, if you could say that.
16:56Testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.
17:01And when they opposed, that's the Jews, opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them,
17:05Your blood be on your own heads.
17:08I am innocent.
17:10From now on, I will go to the Gentiles.
17:12And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.
17:17His house was next door to the synagogue.
17:19Very appropriate because that's where he was at every Saturday.
17:22Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord.
17:25He got saved together with his entire household.
17:27And many of the Corinthians, hearing Paul, believed and were baptized.
17:32That's the evidence that they have accepted the gospel message.
17:35They were baptized.
17:37And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision.
17:38So this is another one of his visions that he gets.
17:40Do not be afraid, but go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in the city who are my people.
17:55And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
18:00So he spent a lot of time at Athens.
18:02One of the longest times he stayed in a church when he was preaching.
18:05When Silas and Timothy came, they brought a financial gift from the Macedonians for Paul.
18:12So he had a financial gift.
18:13That's recorded in 2 Corinthians chapter 11.
18:17Paul says, I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you.
18:21It doesn't technically mean he robbed other churches.
18:24It means he received financial aid from other churches just to serve the Corinthians.
18:29So they brought a gift from Macedonia to help him in his ministry.
18:33Notice this occupation of the word.
18:36Preaching of the word of God occupied Paul's time.
18:39He had an inward pressure to preach the word of God.
18:43He says, I can't stop.
18:45I can't stop.
18:47In the proper sense, he had a passion to speak the word of God.
18:53And I'm not going to stop.
18:54That was the idea that you get in the text is he just had this, he was occupied, he had an inward pressure to preach the word of God.
19:00But in other words, he'd get up in the morning and he's got the, I got to tell people about Jesus.
19:04And he goes to bed at night and said, okay, how can I tell more people about Jesus tomorrow?
19:07He gets up in the morning and says, I got to tell people about Jesus.
19:10Goes to bed.
19:10How can I tell more people tomorrow about Jesus?
19:12This occupied him.
19:14This is what he was about.
19:15He had this inward pressure to preach.
19:17Like Jeremiah the prophet.
19:19Remember that statement in Jeremiah?
19:20Jeremiah 20 verse 9.
19:22Jeremiah says, if I say, I will not mention him or speak any more in his name, there is in my heart, as it were, a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
19:38I can't hold it in.
19:39I got to tell people about Jesus.
19:41That's my life.
19:42I'm occupied with that.
19:43That is my occupation is to tell people about Jesus so they can be saved like he saved me.
19:48He had this inward desire that wherever he went to live out his Christian life.
19:55George Whitfield, that preacher, said, I find that much service might be done if we had but the courage to show ourselves Christians in all places.
20:05Everywhere he went, I'm occupied with the word.
20:08I just want to tell people about Jesus all the time.
20:11What a commitment and a calling to be occupied with the word.
20:15And I think the same example goes to us as well.
20:19I think we ought to be people occupied with the word, not only in our daily devotions that occupy our word, but occupied with the word that we tell other people about Jesus.
20:28We live to tell people about Jesus.
20:31That is, we want them to know him like we know him, that they can be saved as well.
20:36I mean, look at the patience and the humility of Paul.
20:39They opposed and reviled him, the text says.
20:42But he didn't say, well, let you be cursed.
20:44First, he shook off his garments.
20:46He said, well, listen, I told you, I'm innocent.
20:48The blood's going to be on your head.
20:51So he shook out his garments, reference that Jesus talked about to his apostles in Matthew 10.
20:56And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or the town.
21:02So he preaches to them.
21:03The Jew says, we don't want you.
21:05Go away.
21:06We oppose you.
21:07We revile you.
21:08Shakes off his clothes and says, hey, may your blood be upon your own head.
21:14I'm innocent.
21:15I'm innocent.
21:17To have blood on your head meant that you were to blame for your own judgment.
21:21I told you, you didn't want to know.
21:24It's no longer my responsibility.
21:26It's your, the blood is going to be on your head because you, it's your own judgment.
21:31You're to blame for your own judgment.
21:33It's used in, remember Rahab?
21:36When Rahab, the spies come in, Rahab protected the spies.
21:38And then the spies said to Rahab, listen, you and your household and everyone that you invite, make sure you stay in your room, in your house.
21:46And on the day that we conquered this city, you'll be safe and protected in your house.
21:52That's what they told them.
21:53And in, uh, in Joshua two, we read this.
21:58Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, in other words, we told you to stay in your house, his blood be on his own head and we shall be guiltless.
22:08But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head.
22:13So listen, we told you, stay in the house.
22:15If anyone goes out, the judgment is coming into their own head.
22:18That's that they made the choice to go out.
22:21Ezekiel talked about the watchman on the wall.
22:23And if he sees the sword coming and upon the land and blows the trumpet and awards the people.
22:28So, so a warring band is coming and the watchman on the wall says, oh, I see him.
22:33War's coming.
22:34Good.
22:34Okay.
22:35And if anyone hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head.
22:42In other words, I warned you, but you didn't listen.
22:45So now the blood's going to be on your own head.
22:48But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
22:57So it just means, listen, you've ignored the truth.
22:59Now the blood be upon your judgment, be upon your own head.
23:03Many were baptized.
23:04Paul baptized some people, Crispus and Gaius, household of Stephanas, but he normally didn't baptize people.
23:10Here he does though.
23:11It's like a first Corinthians.
23:12He records the people he baptized.
23:15I thank God that I baptized.
23:17None of you except Crispus and Gaius.
23:20Now Gaius, some think that Gaius has the tedious justice.
23:24His full name was Gaius tedious justice.
23:26So it could be that Gaius could be him.
23:29Not sure.
23:30So that no one may say that you were baptized in my name.
23:34I did baptize also the household of Stephanas.
23:37Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.
23:40For Christ did not send me to baptize.
23:42Well, if you have to be baptized to be saved, then that would be a kind of a, why?
23:47But to preach the gospel.
23:48We're saved by faith alone, apart from works.
23:51And not with words of eloquent wisdom.
23:52Lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
23:55Here he is, off his, the sex of his ministry is people that are being baptized.
24:02But then he gets this special vision.
24:04It's almost like a parentheses in the text.
24:06It's kind of like sets aside as this parentheses.
24:08It's like it forms a parentheses in the text right here.
24:11That God is going to be with him.
24:13He is faithful to come alongside him, give him encouragement.
24:16That he can continue faithfully sharing God's word.
24:19God promises Paul that his ministry in Corinth would be a larger than most cities and that he would protect Paul.
24:29He tells him in the vision, do not be afraid.
24:32And it's written in a way that at the moment, Paul was afraid.
24:35He was afraid.
24:37Basically, stop being afraid, Paul.
24:39Well, he told us when he came to Corinth, he had fear and trembling, right?
24:43So at first he was afraid.
24:46Stop being afraid.
24:47And then he says, go on speaking, which means it's a command to continue doing it.
24:51Continue doing it.
24:52Don't be afraid and go on speaking.
24:54That's good witness.
24:55That's good advice for us when we witness is don't be afraid and go on speaking.
25:00Robert Utley says, fear must not silence the gospel proclaimer.
25:05Don't let fear get in the way of silencing us.
25:07Don't be afraid.
25:09Paul, I'm afraid.
25:09Yeah, no, don't be afraid, God says.
25:11Don't be afraid.
25:11I'm with you.
25:12Isn't that the greatest promise that there is?
25:14There is no greater promise than I am with you when God says that.
25:19Because to say that God is with us, that God dwells within us, implies certain things.
25:24The holiness of God would not allow sin, so he must forgive us of our sin and put us in
25:28a different position, being born again than we were, that he will dwell within us by his
25:33spirit.
25:34These are all promises of the statement, I will be with you.
25:37There is no greater promise because it implies so much to think that God is with us all the
25:42time.
25:43He's always with us.
25:44No problem.
25:45In 2 Corinthians 6, we read this.
25:47What agreement has the temple of God with idols?
25:50For we are the temple of the living God, as God said.
25:54I will make my dwelling among them.
25:58God lives in you, believer.
26:00He dwells inside of us.
26:03And I will walk among them.
26:10We were told in the revelation that Jesus walks in the midst of the candlesticks of his
26:13churches, that if that's true, which I believe it is, means he's walking in the midst of this
26:18church today, his church.
26:20He is here.
26:21He dwells with us.
26:23He's walking among us.
26:24And I will be their God.
26:26God, no more pantheon of pagan gods, but the one true creator God, the living God is our
26:33God.
26:34And they shall be my people.
26:36I'm in relationship with him.
26:38There is no greater promise than say, God is with us.
26:42No harm's going to come to him, which we're going to see that no harm does come to him while
26:45he's there.
26:46And then he says, I have many people in this city, which is an interesting, in other words,
26:50it's saying they're not saved yet, but they're going to get saved.
26:53I got many people in this city.
26:54He knew who they were already.
26:55That reminds us of Acts chapter 13.
26:59And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord.
27:04And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
27:08So he had a lot of people yet to be saved.
27:10He knew who they were.
27:10And he wants Paul to continue to preach so that they can get saved.
27:14They can hear that gospel message and they can get saved.
27:18So he stays a long time, longer than most.
27:21And then he, he begins to get more opposition.
27:25The pro-council, the guy that's responsible for the whole province, the political leader
27:30of the whole province now gets involved in the situation.
27:33Look with me in verse number 12.
27:36Galio, he's a pro-council.
27:38He's a, he is the, the political leader of the whole province of Achaia.
27:43But when Galio was pro-council of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought
27:50him before the tribunal.
27:51Again, they're opposite, they're opposing him saying, this man is persuading people to
27:57worship God contrary to the law.
27:59That was their argument.
28:01But when Paul was about to open his mouth, he's going, you know, you ever seen in a conversation
28:05when someone's about open their mouth and say something, Galio cuts him off, cuts him off.
28:09But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galio said to the Jews, if it were a matter
28:14of wrongdoing or vicious crime, oh Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint.
28:20But since this is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it
28:25yourself.
28:26I refuse to be a judge of these things.
28:29I'm not a religious judge.
28:29I'm a political judge.
28:31I'm not a religious judge.
28:32And he drove them from the tribunal.
28:35And they, because they're mad at this point, right?
28:37They're not getting what they want, look at what they do.
28:40And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, who was a believer and beat
28:44him in front of the tribunal.
28:46But Galio paid no attention to these things.
28:49He could care less.
28:50Go ahead, beat the people up.
28:51I don't care.
28:52Especially if you're Jews.
28:53I don't, they didn't like Jews.
28:55Remember they kicked him out of Rome?
28:56They don't even like Jews at this point.
28:59They attack.
29:00So here we see again, PDS, Paul Derangement Syndrome.
29:05They hate him.
29:09They cannot stand this guy.
29:10They want to make sure that he's silenced by whatever means is possible.
29:13So they're trying to get the political, political people involved to make Christianity illegal
29:20in the empire is what they're searching to do.
29:23The tribunal is actually the word Bema seat.
29:26It's a place where trials took place or also rewards were issued out depending on the circumstances.
29:32So in this case, it was a trial.
29:33Sometimes it's rewards issued out from the Bema seat, depending on the circumstances.
29:39See, the Jews wanted the pro-council Galio to declare Christianity illegal.
29:44But by refusing to try the case, he made it clear that Rome would not get involved in cases
29:48of Jewish religious disputes.
29:50In other words, they wanted it to be an illegal religion in the empire.
29:55At this time, he's saying it's not.
29:57Later on, it does happen.
29:58There is imperial persecution against Christians where it's against the law to be a Christian
30:02in the empire.
30:03At this time, that's what they want.
30:05If they can make...
30:06See, what happens was Judaism was allowed.
30:09Judaism as a religion was allowed.
30:10Although they had their own separate God and they weren't the other gods, but they were
30:13allowed to do their thing.
30:15At first, they thought Christianity came under Judaism.
30:17So they never did anything about it.
30:19But then when Rome realized that they began to separate and there were two different things,
30:23they became a question of, are they a protected religion any longer?
30:26Christianity.
30:27Christianity and some of the empire said, no.
30:30Some of the emperors said, no, we are not going to protect Christianity.
30:32In fact, we're going to persecute Christianity.
30:34Nero is one of them.
30:37He didn't see Christianity as being distinct from Judaism.
30:41So he basically said, you take care of it.
30:43I'm not judging this.
30:44You take care of it.
30:46Now, think of this.
30:47If Galileo had sided with the Jews and declared Christianity an illegal religion, this would have
30:52sent shockwaves through the empire.
30:53Every other city would have paid along and said, okay, Christianity is a legal religion.
30:59So we're praising God.
31:00At this point, it's not counted a legal religion.
31:03They're allowed freedom of religion at this point.
31:08He doesn't care about the violence.
31:09He closed his eyes to the riot.
31:11And the guy's getting beaten up in front of him.
31:12He doesn't care.
31:13He doesn't care at all.
31:14Kind of tells his attitude.
31:15So what do we get out of this?
31:18What is it that we learn?
31:20Well, the first one we learned is this.
31:22Be an encouragement to other believers because we need it daily.
31:27Aquila and Priscilla encouraged Paul.
31:29They worked together.
31:30They shared.
31:31They were, Paul and Aquila were Jews.
31:33They shared their background.
31:34They talked about tent making.
31:36They talked about Jesus.
31:37They were encouraging to each other.
31:39And I think right now I can safely say knowing humanity and knowing even us believers, there's
31:45someone here today that needs to be encouraged.
31:49Give them a word of encouragement.
31:51Come alongside them and help them.
31:53Be an encouragement because we need it daily.
31:57Second, be encouraged by the Lord.
32:00When things are going tough, let the Lord encourage you with the fact that I am with you.
32:05I will never leave you.
32:06I will never forsake you.
32:07I will not go on a distant journey somewhere in another galaxy and leave you all by yourself.
32:12I will be involved in your life.
32:14I am your shepherd.
32:16Be encouraged.
32:17The Lord knows who is his own and dwells in them.
32:21And lastly, be encouraged that Christianity is not illegal in America yet.
32:28Yet.
32:29Be encouraged.
32:32Let us use this time and blessing to share the gospel message daily.
32:38Also, we need to guard the republic.
32:43God-given right to speak the truth.
32:45That's God-given right.
32:46Our republic enshrined that in the First Amendment.
32:50Freedom of religion.
32:51Freedom to speak the truth without the government coming down on us and shutting everything down.
32:56Like we see in those hostile nations.
32:58The government comes in and shuts everything down.
33:00There's no freedom of speech or freedom of religion.
33:02We need to guard the republic that we don't lose this.
33:05It's right that God has given to us.
33:08Pray for our nation.
33:10Let's pray.
33:11Father, thank you.
33:12I thank you for this text.
33:15And I can't imagine what Paul was going through.
33:17The things that he saw that just burdened his soul.
33:23He saw things that none of us should ever see.
33:26I'm sure walking the streets of Corinth.
33:27And I just thank you that he understood how he could be in the midst of them and still be committed to you and not fall into their sins.
33:36And so give us that strength, too, daily, Father, that we can be in the midst of unbelievers and yet not take over their behaviors in our life and be contaminated by their behaviors.
33:45We want to be separated to you, but we don't want to be isolated, people.
33:49We live in this world, and we want to tell other people about Jesus.
33:53So help us to understand what Paul did.
33:54And that is we can have contact without contamination.
33:59So thank you, Father.
34:00And again, I just want to thank you for our nation.
34:02May our nation continue.
34:03May the republic continue.
34:04May the ability to speak freely continue.
34:07May the ability to assemble freely continue.
34:10May it never be taken away from us.
34:13You have placed us in this country.
34:14We could be anywhere else in the world, but you have put us here.
34:17Let us be part of what is happening here in our country.
34:20We pray in Jesus' name.
34:22Amen.
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